CVE-2025-49520 is a command injection vulnerability found in the Event-Driven Ansible (EDA) component of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5 running on RHEL 8. The vulnerability stems from improper neutralization of argument delimiters in user-supplied Git URLs that are passed unsanitized to the git ls-remote command. This allows an authenticated attacker to inject arbitrary command-line arguments, leading to arbitrary command execution on the EDA worker node. The EDA component is designed to automate event-driven workflows and often integrates with Kubernetes and OpenShift clusters. Exploitation in these environments can lead to theft of Kubernetes service account tokens, which provide credentials to access cluster resources, potentially allowing attackers to escalate privileges and move laterally within the cluster. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 8.8, reflecting high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability, with network attack vector, low attack complexity, and no user interaction required. Although no known exploits have been reported in the wild, the potential impact is severe due to the critical role of Ansible Automation in enterprise infrastructure management and the sensitive nature of Kubernetes cluster credentials. The flaw highlights the risk of insufficient input validation in automation tools that interact with external inputs such as Git repositories.

For European organizations, the impact of CVE-2025-49520 is significant, especially for those relying on Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to manage infrastructure and Kubernetes/OpenShift clusters. Successful exploitation can lead to full compromise of the EDA worker, allowing attackers to execute arbitrary commands, potentially disrupting automation workflows and causing service outages. In container orchestration environments, attackers can steal service account tokens, gaining unauthorized access to cluster resources, which may include sensitive data, critical applications, and infrastructure controls. This can lead to data breaches, service disruptions, and lateral movement within corporate networks. Given the widespread use of Red Hat products and OpenShift in Europe’s public and private sectors, including government, finance, and telecommunications, the vulnerability poses a substantial risk to operational continuity and data security. The high CVSS score underscores the criticality of this threat.

Organizations should prioritize the following mitigations: 1) Apply official patches from Red Hat as soon as they become available to address the input sanitization flaw. 2) Until patches are applied, restrict access to the EDA component to trusted users only and enforce strict authentication and authorization controls. 3) Implement input validation and sanitization controls on any user-supplied Git URLs or other external inputs before they reach command execution contexts. 4) Limit the privileges of the EDA worker service account to the minimum necessary, reducing the impact of potential compromise. 5) Monitor logs and audit trails for unusual command execution or access patterns related to the EDA component. 6) In Kubernetes/OpenShift environments, rotate service account tokens and review cluster role bindings to minimize exposure. 7) Employ network segmentation to isolate automation infrastructure from critical production systems. 8) Conduct security awareness training for administrators managing automation platforms to recognize and respond to suspicious activities.